US: IKEA Houston grants Urban Harvest funds for educational vegetable garden

Urban Harvest, a Houston-area organization supporting a network of urban gardens, farms and orchards that inspire and empower people of diverse backgrounds to grow food in the city, will receive a $10,000 grant from IKEA Houston as part of the national IKEA Life Improvement Challenge, IKEA Houston announced today. The grant will be used to build a vegetable garden at Spring Branch Independent School District’s Ridgecrest Elementary. It will also support a part-time instructor to teach students about the importance of gardening and healthy eating as it relates to math, science and nutrition.

“The community garden at Ridgecrest will provide students unique, experiential learning in an outdoor setting,” said Kim Castillo, marketing manager at IKEA Houston. “We are proud Urban Harvest is the recipient of the grant, as their in-school garden program will educate area youth about the importance of sustainable and healthy living, touchstones fundamental to the IKEA culture.”

“We’re grateful to IKEA Houston for their valuable contribution toward helping children establish good nutrition habits early on,” said Callie Hastings, development director for Urban Harvest. “The vegetable garden at Ridgecrest is critically important to the physical wellbeing and mental growth of the school’s students.”

Nine hundred and forty Ridgecrest Elementary students will visit the garden each week to learn how to grow their own vegetables. Along with the vegetables they plant, students will take home seed-starting kits with which they can grow tomatoes and peppers from their own kitchens.

Ninety five percent of Ridgecrest Elementary students receive free lunches and 75% live in government housing. By learning in an unprecedented, accessible urban green space, these students and their parents will become better informed on how to eat healthier and grow produce organically.

Nationally, the IKEA Life Improvement Challenge received almost 100 inspiring proposals submitted by IKEA co-workers. Each co-worker proposal highlighted an organization that helps improve the lives of others in their local communities. The proposals were voted on by over 4,000 IKEA co-workers through an online survey and by nearly 40,000 customers via text.

A total of $370,000 will be distributed to various local organizations with 37 IKEA stores participating in the Challenge. The program is part of the larger IKEA Life Improvement Project, a program designed to help inspire and empower people to improve their lives, as well as the lives of others in their community.

For more details on the Life Improvement Project, visit www.thelifeimprovementproject.com.